Prefabricated country home

This contemporary style villa located in the hills above the Italian city of Piacenza can aptly be described as a do-it-yourself home. Both owners contributed to the project: he – British architect Nicholas Bewick – designed the structure, a prefabricated parallelepiped that can be erected in just ten days; she – Italian-based American designer Terri Pecora – created the furnishings.
The result? A beautiful and functional home that is the perfect country getaway for relaxing in close contact with nature. The designers’ idea was to explore a different concept and way of building a holiday home.
The building was made from prefabricated panels produced by the specialist Austrian company Kaufmann. It has a super-flexible wood and glass structure, with mobile walls that define multifunctional spaces that can be varied according to requirements. The whole house is located on a single floor: the long sides have large sliding windows (Schüco) that allow the living space to open onto the green of the landscape (a projecting roof creates interior shading during the hottest months), while the shorter sides consist of sandwich panels incorporating insulating materials (the bedrooms and bathrooms are located here). The roof is also well insulated, consisting of a laminar wood structure with further protection provided by a layer of grass.
But the building is also environmentally friendly. It has a low impact on the landscape right from the start due to the short construction times. The house arrives dismantled on a truck and is rebuilt on site with the aid of a crane and a small number of specialist workers.
Eco-friendly choices are also evident in terms of energy consumption. Contributing factors include the intelligent orientation of the building, extensive use of thermal glass to exploit the benefits of sunlight, and the inclusion of a turf roof. In the in-between seasons, the designer fireplace (Celsius), strikingly suspended from the ceiling, supplements the heating which consists of a modern low-temperature system installed in the floor.
But a lot of attention has also been devoted to the choice of materials inside the house. The hewn stone used in the daytime area alternates with a more functional double fired tile in the bathrooms, the Parka series from Dom Ceramiche which creates an attractive mosaic effect based on coffee tones. The same wall tile appears in the bedroom, but in a snow white colour.
The furnishings consist of designer items or custom pieces designed by Terri Pecora herself.
Scattered around the house are pieces of furniture created by masters of the history of design as well as pieces chosen from contemporary production. The same applies to the bathroom furnishings, all produced by Simas: the soft shapes of « her » bathroom (the Bohemien drop-shaped line designed by Terri Pecora herself) alternate with the sharper and more rigorous styling of « his » bathroom, designed by the Simas technical department.